Signal acquisition in a wireless communication system

ABSTRACT

Each base station transmits a TDM pilot 1 having multiple instances of a pilot-1 sequence generated with a PN1 sequence and a TDM pilot 2 having at least one instance of a pilot-2 sequence generated with a PN2 sequence. Each base station is assigned a specific PN2 sequence that uniquely identifies that base station. A terminal uses TDM pilot 1 to detect for the presence of a signal and uses TDM pilot 2 to identify base stations and obtain accurate timing. For signal detection, the terminal performs delayed correlation on received samples and determines whether a signal is present. If a signal is detected, the terminal performs direct correlation on the received samples with PN1 sequences for K 1  different time offsets and identifies K 2  strongest TDM pilot 1 instances. For time synchronization, the terminal performs direct correlation on the received samples with PN2 sequences to detect for TDM pilot 2.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationSer. No. 60/580,809, filed Jun. 18, 2004 which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

I. Field

The present invention relates generally to communication, and morespecifically to techniques for performing signal acquisition in awireless communication system.

II. Background

In a communication system, a base station processes (e.g., encodes andsymbol maps) data to obtain modulation symbols, and further processesthe modulation symbols to generate a modulated signal. The base stationthen transmits the modulated signal via a communication channel. Thesystem may use a transmission scheme whereby data is transmitted inframes, with each frame having a particular time duration. Differenttypes of data (e.g., traffic/packet data, overhead/control data, pilot,and so on) may be sent in different parts of each frame.

A wireless terminal in the system may not know which base stations, ifany, near its vicinity are transmitting. Furthermore, the terminal maynot know the start of each frame for a given base station, the time atwhich each frame is transmitted by the base station, or the propagationdelay introduced by the communication channel. The terminal performssignal acquisition to detect for transmissions from base stations in thesystem and to synchronize to the timing and frequency of each detectedbase stations of interest. Via the signal acquisition process, theterminal can ascertain the timing of each detected base station and canproperly perform the complementary demodulation for that base station.

The base stations typically expend system resources to support signalacquisition, and the terminals also consume resources to performacquisition. Since signal acquisition is overhead needed for datatransmission, it is desirable to minimize the amount of resources usedby both the base stations and terminals for acquisition.

There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to efficientlyperform signal acquisition in a wireless communication system.

SUMMARY

Techniques to efficiently perform signal acquisition in a wirelesscommunication system are described herein. In an embodiment, each basestation transmits two time division multiplexed (TDM) pilots. The firstTDM pilot (or “TDM pilot 1”) is composed of multiple instances of apilot-1 sequence that is generated with a first pseudo-random number(PN) sequence (or “PN 1” sequence). Each instance of the pilot-1sequence is a copy or replica of the pilot-1sequence. The second TDMpilot (or “TDM pilot 2”) is composed of at least one instance of apilot-2 sequence that is generated with a second PN sequence (or “PN2”sequence). Each base station is assigned a specific PN2 sequence thatuniquely identifies that base station among neighboring base stations.To reduce computation for signal acquisition, the available PN2sequences for the system may be arranged into M₁ sets. Each set containsM₂ PN2 sequences and is associated with a different PN1 sequence. Thus,M₁ PN1 sequences and M₁·M₂ PN2 sequences are available for the system.

A terminal may use TDM pilot 1 to detect for the presence of a signal,obtain timing, and estimate frequency error. The terminal may use TDMpilot 2 to identify a specific base station transmitting a TDM pilot2.The use of two TDM pilots for signal detection and time synchronizationcan reduce the amount of processing needed for signal acquisition.

In an embodiment for signal detection, the terminal performs a delayedcorrelation on received samples in each sample period, computes adelayed correlation metric for the sample period, and compares thismetric against a first threshold to determine whether a signal ispresent. If a signal is detected, then the terminal obtains coarsetiming based on a peak in the delayed correlation. The terminal thenperforms direct correlation on the received samples with PN1 sequencesfor K₁ different time offsets within an uncertainty window andidentifies K₂ strongest TDM pilot1 instances, where K₁≦1 and K₂≦1. Ifeach PN1 sequence is associated with M₂ PN sequences, then each detectedTDM pilot1instance is associated with M₂ pilot-2 hypotheses. Eachpilot-2 hypothesis corresponds to a specific time offset and a specificPN2 sequence for TDM pilot2.

In an embodiment for time synchronization, the terminal performs directcorrelation on the received samples with PN2 sequences for the differentpilot-2 hypotheses to detect for TDM pilot 2. The terminal only needs toevaluate M₂ PN sequences for each detected TDM pilot1 instance, insteadof all M₁·M₂ possible PN2 sequences. The terminal computes a directcorrelation metric for each pilot-2 hypothesis and compares this metricagainst a second threshold to determine whether TDM pilot 2 is present.For each detected TDM pilot 2 instance, the base station transmittingthe TDM pilot 2 is identified based on the PN2 sequence for the pilot-2hypothesis, and the timing for the base station is given by the timeoffset for the hypothesis.

Various aspects and embodiments of the invention are described infurther detail below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and nature of the present invention will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings in which like reference charactersidentify correspondingly throughout.

FIG. 1 shows a wireless communication system.

FIG. 2A shows TDM pilots 1 and2 generated in the time domain.

FIG. 2B shows TDM pilots 1 and2 generated in the frequency domain.

FIG. 3A shows synchronous pilot transmission on the forward link.

FIG. 3B shows staggered pilot transmission on the forward link.

FIG. 3C shows asynchronous pilot transmission on the forward link.

FIG. 3D shows time-varying pilot transmission on the forward link.

FIG. 4 shows a process performed by a terminal for signal acquisition.

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of a base station and a terminal.

FIG. 6 shows a transmit (TX) pilot processor at the base station.

FIG. 7 shows a sync unit at the terminal.

FIG. 8A shows a delayed correlator for TDM pilot1.

FIG. 8B shows a direct correlator for TDM pilot1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example,instance, or illustration.” Any embodiment or design described herein as“exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred oradvantageous over other embodiments or designs.

The signal acquisition techniques described herein may be used forsingle-carrier and multi-carrier communication systems. Furthermore, oneor more TDM pilots may be used to facilitate signal acquisition. Forclarity, certain aspects of the techniques are described below for aspecific TDM pilot transmission scheme in a multi-carrier system thatutilizes orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). OFDM is amulti-carrier modulation technique that effectively partitions theoverall system bandwidth into multiple (N_(F)) orthogonal frequencysubbands. These subbands are also called tones, subcarriers, bins, andfrequency channels. With OFDM, each subband is associated with arespective sub-carrier that may be modulated with data.

FIG. 1 shows a wireless communication system 100. System 100 includes anumber of base stations 110 that support communication for a number ofwireless terminals 120. A base station is a fixed station used forcommunicating with the terminals and may also be referred to as anaccess point, a Node B, or some other terminology. Terminals 120 aretypically dispersed throughout the system, and each terminal may befixed or mobile. A terminal may also be referred to as a mobile station,a user equipment (UE), a wireless communication device, or some otherterminology. Each terminal may communicate with one or multiple basestations on the forward and reverse links at any given moment. Theforward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from thebase stations to the terminals, and the reverse link (or uplink) refersto the communication link from the terminals to the base stations. Forsimplicity, FIG. 1 only shows forward link transmissions.

Each base station 110 provides communication coverage for a respectivegeographic area. The term “cell” can refer to a base station and/or itscoverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used. Toincrease capacity, the coverage area of each base station may bepartitioned into multiple regions (e.g., three regions). Each region maybe served by a corresponding base transceiver subsystem (BTS). The term“sector” can refer to a BTS and/or its coverage area, depending on thecontext in which the term is used. For a sectorized cell, the basestation for that cell typically includes the BTSs for all of the sectorsof that cell. For simplicity, in the following description, the term“base station” is used generically for both a fixed station that servesa cell and a fixed station that serves a sector. Thus, a “base station”in the following description may be for a cell or a sector, depending onwhether the system has unsectorized or sectorized cells, respectively.

FIG. 2A shows an exemplary pilot and data transmission scheme for theforward link in system 100. Each base station transmits data and pilotin frames, with each frame 210 having a predetermined time duration. Aframe may also be referred to as a slot or some other terminology. In anembodiment, each frame 210 includes a field 220 for TDM pilots and afield 230 for data. In general, a frame may include any number of fieldsfor any type of transmission. A transmission interval refers to a timeinterval in which the TDM pilots are transmitted once. In general, atransmission interval may be a fixed time duration (e.g., a frame) or avariable time duration.

For the embodiment shown in FIG. 2A, field 220 includes a subfield 222for TDM pilot 1 and a subfield 224 for TDM pilot 2. TDM pilot 1 has atotal length of T₁ samples and comprises S₁ identical pilot-1 sequences,where in general S₁≧1. TDM pilot 2 has a total length of T₂ samples andcomprises S₂ identical pilot-2sequences, where in general S₂≧1. Thus,there may be one or multiple pilot-1 sequence instances for TDM pilot 1and one or multiple pilot-2 sequence instances for TDM pilot2. TDMpilots 1 and2 may be generated in the time domain or the frequencydomain (e.g., with OFDM).

FIG. 2A also shows an embodiment of TDM pilots1 and 2 generated in thetime domain. For this embodiment, each pilot-1 sequence is generatedwith a PN1 sequence having L₁ PN chips, where L₁≧1. Each PN chip maytake on a value of either +1 or −1 and is transmitted in one sample/chipperiod. TDM pilot1 comprises S₁ complete pilot-1 sequences and, ifS₁·L₁<T₁, a partial pilot-1 sequence of length C₁, where C₁=T₁−S₁·L₁.The total length of TDM pilot 1 is thus T₁=S₁·L₁+C₁. For the embodimentshown in FIG. 2A, TDM pilot2 comprises one complete pilot-2sequencegenerated with a PN2sequence of length T₂. In general, TDM pilot 2 maycomprise S₂ complete pilot-2 sequences generated with a PN2 sequence oflength L₂ and, if S₂·L₂<T₂, a partial pilot-2 sequence of length C₂,where C₂=T₂−S₂·L₂. The total length of TDM pilot 2 is then T₂=S₂·L₂+C₂.

As used herein, a PN sequence may be any sequence of chips that may begenerated in any manner and preferably has good correlation properties.For example, a PN sequence may be generated with a generator polynomial,as is known in the art. The PN sequence for each base station (e.g.,each sector) may also be a scrambling code used to randomize data. Inthis case, the TDM pilots may be generated by applying the scramblingcode to a sequence of all ones or all zeros.

FIG. 2B shows an embodiment of TDM pilots1 and2 generated in thefrequency domain using OFDM. For this embodiment, TDM pilot1 comprisesL₁ pilot symbols that are transmitted on L₁ subbands, one pilot symbolper subband used for TDM pilot1. The L₁ subbands are uniformlydistributed across the N_(F) total subbands and are equally spaced apartby S₁ subbands, where S₁=N_(F)/L₁ and S₁≧1. For example, if N_(F)=512,L₁=256, and S₁=2, then 256 pilot symbols are transmitted on 256 subbandsthat are spaced apart by two subbands. Other values may also be used forN_(F), L₁, and S₁. The L₁ pilot symbols for the L₁ subbands and N_(F)−L₁zero signal values for the remaining subbands are transformed to thetime domain with an N_(F)-point inverse discrete Fourier transform(IDFT) to generate a “transformed” symbol that contains N_(F)time-domain samples. This transformed symbol has S₁ identical pilot-1sequences, with each pilot-1 sequence containing L₁ time-domain samples.A pilot-1sequence may also be generated by performing an L₁-point IDFTon the L₁ pilot symbols for TDM pilot1. For OFDM, C rightmost samples ofthe transformed symbol are often copied and appended in front of thetransformed symbol to generate an OFDM symbol that contains N_(F)+Csamples. The repeated portion is often called a cyclic prefix and isused to combat inter-symbol interference (ISI). For example, ifN_(F)=512 and C=32, then each OFDM symbol contains 544 samples. OtherOFDM subband structures with different numbers of total subbands andcyclic prefix lengths may also be used.

The PN1 sequence may be applied in the frequency domain by multiplyingthe L₁ pilot symbols with the L₁ chips of the PN1 sequence. The PN1sequence may also be applied in the time domain by multiplying the L₁time-domain samples for each pilot-1 sequence with the L₁ chips of thePN1 sequence.

TDM pilot2 may be generated in the frequency domain in similar manner asdescribed above for TDM pilot1. For TDM pilot 2, L₂ pilot symbols aretransmitted on L₂ subbands that are evenly spaced apart by S₂ subbands,where S₂=N/L₂ and S₂>1. The PN2 sequence may be applied in the time orfrequency domain. If TDM pilots1 and 2 are generated in the frequencydomain, then the pilot-1 and pilot-2 sequences contain complex valuesinstead of ±1. For the embodiment shown in FIG. 2B, TDM pilots1 and 2are each sent within one OFDM symbol. In general, each TDM pilot mayinclude any number of OFDM symbols.

Neighboring base stations may use the same or different PN1 sequencesfor TDM pilot1. A set of M₁ PN1 sequences may be formed, and each basestation may use one of the M₁ PN1 sequences in this set. To reducecomplexity, M₁ may be chosen to be a small positive number. In anembodiment, neighboring base stations use different PN2 sequences forTDM pilot 2 , and the PN2 sequence for each base station is used touniquely identify that base station among neighboring base stations.

To reduce computation for signal acquisition, each PN1 sequence may beassociated with a different set of M₂ PN2 sequences. A composite set ofM₁·M₂ different PN2sequences is then available. Each base station may beassigned one of the PN2 sequences in the composite set as well as thePN1 sequence associated with the PN2 sequence assigned to the basestation. Each base station thus uses a pair of PN1 and PN2 sequencesthat is different from the PN1 and PN2 sequence pairs used byneighboring base stations. M₁ and M₂ may be selected to be reasonablysmall values to reduce complexity but sufficiently large to ensure thatno terminal will observe two base stations with the same PN2 sequence(e.g., M₁·M₂=256).

A terminal may use TDM pilot1 to detect for the presence of a signal,obtain coarse timing, and estimate frequency error. The terminal may useTDM pilot2 to identify a specific base station transmitting a TDM pilot2 and to obtain more accurate timing (or time synchronization). The useof two separate TDM pilots for signal detection and time synchronizationcan reduce the amount of processing needed for signal acquisition, asdescribed below. The duration or length of each TDM pilot may beselected based on a tradeoff between detection performance and theamount of overhead incurred for that TDM pilot. In an embodiment, TDMpilot1 comprises two complete pilot-1 sequences each having a length of256 chips (or S₁=2 and L₁=256), and TDM pilot2 comprises one completepilot-2 sequence having a length of 512 or 544 chips (or S₂=1, andL₂=544 for FIG. 2A and L₂=512 for FIG. 2B). In general, TDM pilot1 maycomprise any number of pilot-1 sequences, which may be of any length,and TDM pilot 2 may also comprise any number of pilot-2 sequences, whichmay also be of any length.

FIG. 3A shows a synchronous pilot transmission scheme for the forwardlink. For this scheme, the base stations in the system are synchronousand transmit their TDM pilots at approximately the same time. A terminalcan receive the TDM pilots from all base stations at approximately thesame time, with any timing skew between the base stations being due todifferences in propagation delays and possibly other factors. Bysynchronizing the TDM pilots from different base stations, interferenceby the TDM pilots from one base station on data transmissions by otherbase stations is avoided, which may improve data detection performance.Furthermore, interference from the data transmissions on the TDM pilotsis also avoided, which may improve acquisition performance.

FIG. 3B shows a staggered pilot transmission scheme for the forwardlink. For this scheme, the base stations in the system are synchronousbut transmit their TDM pilots at different times so that the TDM pilotsare staggered. The base stations may be identified by the time at whichthey transmit their TDM pilots. The same PN sequence may be used for allbase stations, and the processing for signal acquisition may be reduceddramatically with all base stations using the same PN sequence. For thisscheme, the pilot transmission from each base station observesinterference from the data transmissions from neighboring base stations.

FIG. 3C shows an asynchronous pilot transmission scheme for the forwardlink. For this scheme, the base stations in the system are asynchronousand each base station transmits its TDM pilots based on its timing. TheTDM pilots from different base stations may thus arrive at differenttimes at the terminal.

For the synchronous pilot transmission scheme shown in FIG. 3A, the TDMpilot transmission from each base station may observe the sameinterference from the TDM pilot transmissions from neighboring basestations in each frame. In this case, averaging the TDM pilots overmultiple frames does not provide averaging gain since the sameinterference is present in each frame. The interference may be varied bychanging the TDM pilots across frames.

FIG. 3D shows a time-varying pilot transmission scheme for the forwardlink. For this scheme, each base station is assigned a set of M_(B) PN1sequences for TDM pilot1, where M_(B)>1. Each base station uses one PN1sequence for TDM pilot1 for each frame and cycles through the M_(B) PN1sequences in M_(B) frames. Different base stations are assigneddifferent sets of M_(B) PN1 sequences.

The set of M_(B) PN1 sequences for each base station may be viewed as a“long code” that spans across multiple frames. Each of the M_(B) PN1sequences may be considered as a segment of the long code and may begenerated with a different seed for the long code. To reduce receiverprocessing complexity, the same long code may be used for all basestations, and each base station may be assigned a different offset ofthe long code. For example, base station i may be assigned a long codeoffset of ki, where ki is within a range of 0 through M_(B)−1. The PN1sequences for base station i, starting at a designated frame, is thengiven as: PN1_(ki+1), PN1_(ki+1), PN1_(ki+2), and so on. Detection of agiven PN1 sequence or long code offset, along with the frame in whichthe PN1 sequence is detected relative to the designated frame, canidentify which set of PN1 sequences the detected PN1 sequence belongs.

In general, improved acquisition performance may be achieved if all basestations in the system are synchronized and transmit their TDM pilots atthe same time. However, this is not a necessary condition, and all or asubset of the base stations in the system may be asynchronous. Forclarity, much of the following description assumes that the basestations are synchronous.

FIGS. 2A and 2B show the use of two TDM pilots, or TDM pilots1 and2. Ingeneral, any number of TDM pilots may be used to facilitate signalacquisition by the terminals. Each TDM pilot may be associated with adifferent set of PN sequences. A hierarchical structure may be used forthe PN sequences. For example, TDM pilot1 may be associated with M₁possible PN1 sequences (or M₁ possible sets of PN1 sequences), each PN1sequence may be associated with M₂ possible PN2 sequences, each PN2sequence may be associated with M₃ possible PN3 sequences, and so on.Each PN1 sequence may be assigned to a large number of base stations inthe system, each PN2 sequence may be assigned to a smaller number ofbase stations, and so on. In general, each TDM pilot may be generatedwith a PN sequence or without a PN sequence. For simplicity, thefollowing description assumes the use of two TDM pilots generated withtwo PN sequences selected from two different sets of PN sequences.

The terminal performs different processing for signal detection and timesynchronization. The use of different PN sequences for TDM pilots1 and2allows the terminal to split up the processing for these two tasks, asdescribed below.

1. Delayed Correlation for TDM pilot1

At a terminal, the received sample for each sample period may beexpressed as:r(n)=h(n)

s(n)+w(n)=y(n)+w(n),   Eq (1)where n is an index for sample period;

s(n) is a time-domain sample sent by a base station in sample period n;

h(n) is a complex channel gain observed by sample s(n);

r(n) is a received sample obtained by the terminal for sample period n;

w(n) is the noise for sample period n;

y(n)=h(n

s(n); and

denotes a convolution operation.

TDM pilot1 is a periodic signal composed of S₁ instances of the pilot-1sequence. The terminal may perform delayed correlation to detect for thepresence of an underlying periodic signal (e.g., TDM pilot 1) in thereceived signal. The delayed correlation may be expressed as:

$\begin{matrix}{{{C(n)} = {\sum\limits_{i = 0}^{N_{1} - 1}{{r^{*}\left( {n - i} \right)} \cdot {r\left( {n - i - L_{1}} \right)}}}},} & {{Eq}\mspace{14mu}(2)}\end{matrix}$where C(n) is a delayed correlation result for sample period n;

N₁ is the length or duration of the delayed correlation; and

“*” denotes a complex conjugate.

The delayed correlation length (N₁) may be set to the total length ofTDM pilot1 (T₁) minus the length of one pilot-1 sequence (L₁) and minusa margin (Q₁) to account for ISI effects at the edges of TDM pilot1, orN₁=T₁−L₁−Q₁. For the embodiment shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B with TDM pilot1comprising two pilot-1 sequences, the delayed correlation length N₁ maybe set to pilot-1 sequence length, or N₁=L₁.

Equation (2) computes a correlation between two received samples r(n−i)and r(n−i−L₁) that are spaced apart by L₁ sample periods, which is thepilot-1 sequence length. This correlation, which isc(n−i)=r*(n−i)·r(n−i−L₁), removes the effect of the communicationchannel without requiring a channel gain estimate. N₁ correlations arecomputed for N₁ different pairs of received samples. Equation (2) thenaccumulates the N₁ correlation results c(n) through c(n−N₁+1) to obtainthe delayed correlation result C(n), which is a complex value.

A delayed correlation metric may be defined as the squared magnitude ofthe delayed correlation result, as follows:S(n)=|C(n)|²,   Eq (3)where |x|² denotes the squared magnitude of x.

The terminal may declare the presence of TDM pilot1 if the followingcondition is true:S(n)>λ·|E _(rx)|²,   Eq (4)where E_(rx) is the energy of the received samples and λ is a thresholdvalue. The energy E_(rx) may be computed based on the received samplesused for the delayed correlation and is indicative of the temporallylocal energy. Equation (4) performs a normalized comparison, where thenormalization is based on the energy of the received samples for TDMpilot1, if it is present. The threshold value λ may be selected to tradeoff between detection probability and false alarm probability for TDMpilot1. Detection probability is the probability of correctly indicatingthe presence of TDM pilot1 when it is present. False alarm probabilityis the probability of incorrectly indicating the presence of TDM Pilot1when it is not present. High detection probability and low false alarmprobability are desirable. In general, a higher threshold value reducesboth detection probability and false alarm probability.

Equation (4) shows the use of an energy-based threshold to detect forTDM Pilot1. Other thresholding schemes may also be used for TDM pilotdetection. For example, if an automatic gain control (AGC) mechanismautomatically normalizes the energy of the received samples, then anabsolute threshold may be used for TDM pilot detection.

If the terminal is equipped with multiple (R) antennas, then the delayedcorrelation result C_(j)(n) may be computed for each antenna j as shownin equation (2). The delayed correlation results for all antennas may becoherently combined as follows:

$\begin{matrix}{{C_{total}(n)} = {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{R}{{C_{j}(n)}.}}} & {{Eq}\mspace{14mu}(5)}\end{matrix}$The squared magnitude of the combined delayed correlation result, or|C_(total) (n)|², may be compared against a normalized threshold

${\lambda \cdot {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{R}E_{j}^{2}}},$where E_(j) is the received energy for antenna j.

The terminal computes an N₁-point delayed correlation C(n) for eachsample period n based on the received sample sequence {r(n−i)} and thedelayed received sample sequence {r(n−i−L₁)}, as shown in equation (2).If S₁=2, then the magnitude of the delayed correlation has a triangularshape when plotted against sample period n. The delayed correlationresult has a peak value at sample period n_(p). This peak occurs whenthe delayed correlation spans the duration of the two pilot-1 sequences.If the delayed correlation is performed as described above and in theabsence of noise, then sample period n_(p) is “close to” the end of thesecond pilot-1 sequence for TDM pilot1. The imprecision in the peaklocation is due to ISI effects at the edges of TDM pilot1. The magnitudeof the delayed correlation result falls off gradually on both sides ofsample period n_(p), since the signal is periodic over only a portion ofthe delayed correlation duration for all other sample periods.

The terminal declares the presence of TDM pilot1 if the delayedcorrelation metric S(n) crosses the predetermined threshold in anysample period, as shown in equation (4). This sample period occurs onthe left or leading edge of the triangular shape. The terminal continuesto perform the delayed correlation (e.g., for the next L₁ sampleperiods) in order to detect for the peak in the delayed correlationresult. If TDM pilot1 has been detected, then the location of thedelayed correlation peak is used as a coarse time estimate. This timeestimate may not be very accurate because (1) the delayed correlationresult has a gradual peak and the location of the peak may be inaccuratein the presence of noise and (2) ISI at the edges of the TDM pilot1causes degradation in the delayed correlation result.

In an alternative embodiment, the delayed correlation is performedacross an entire frame to obtain a delayed correlation metric for eachsample period in the frame. The largest delayed correlation metric inthe frame is then provided as the location of the detected TDM pilot1and the coarse time estimate. This embodiment performs TDM pilot1detection without the use of a threshold and may also reduce false peakdetection due to interference from, e.g., a frequency divisionmultiplexed (FDM) pilot that is transmitted continuously across the dataportion of each frame by neighboring base stations and/or the basestation being detected. Other schemes (which may employ moresophisticated detection logic) may also be used to detect for thepresence of TDM pilot1 and to determine the location of the delayedcorrelation peak.

The delayed correlation is essentially used to detect for the presenceof an underlying periodic signal. The delayed correlation is thus immuneto multipath degradations but still captures multipath diversity. Thisis because a periodic signal remains periodic in the presence ofmultipath. Furthermore, if multiple base stations transmit periodicsignals simultaneously, then the composite signal at the terminal isalso periodic. For synchronous pilot transmission as shown in FIG. 3A,TDM pilot1 essentially observes no interference (for the purpose ofdelayed correlation) and is affected mainly by thermal noise. As aresult, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or carrier-to-interference ratio(C/I) for TDM pilot1 may be higher than the SNR for other transmissions.The higher SNR for TDM pilot1 allows the terminal to achieve gooddetection performance with a shorter TDM pilot1 duration, which reducesoverhead.

The terminal may obtain a coarse frequency error estimate based on thedelayed correlation result C(n). If the frequency of a radio frequency(RF) oscillator used for frequency downconversion at the terminal isoffset from the center frequency of the received signal, then thereceived samples have a phase ramp in the time domain and may beexpressed as:r(n)=y(n)·e ^(j2π·Δf·T) ^(c) ^(·n) +w(n),   Eq (6)where Δf is the frequency offset/error and T_(c) is one chip period.Equation (6) differs from equation (1) by the phase ramp e^(j2π·Δf·T)^(c) ^(·n) caused by frequency error Δf in the RF oscillator at theterminal.

If the expression for the received samples in equation (6) is used forthe delayed correlation in equation (2), then the phase of the delayedcorrelation result (assuming no noise) may be expressed as:2π·Δf·L ₁ ·T _(c)=arg{C(n)},   Eq (7)where arg {x} is the argument of x, which is the arctangent of theimaginary part of x over the real part of x. The frequency error Δf maybe obtained by dividing the phase of the delayed correlation result by2π·L₁·T_(c), as follows:

$\begin{matrix}{{\Delta\; f} = {\frac{\arg\left\{ {C(n)} \right\}}{2{\pi \cdot L_{1} \cdot T_{c}}}.}} & {{Eq}\mspace{14mu}(8)}\end{matrix}$

The frequency error estimate in equation (8) is valid if the phase ofthe delayed correlation result is within a range of −π to π, or2π·Δf·L₁·T_(c)ε(−π, π). A frequency error that is too large cannot bedetected by the delayed correlation. Thus, the frequency error should bemaintained less than a maximum allowable range. For example, |Δf| shouldbe less than 9.75 KHz or 4.65 parts per million (ppm) if the centerfrequency is 2.1 GHz. For a conservative design, the frequency error maybe constrained to an even smaller range, e.g., |Δf|<2.5 ppm. A largerfrequency error may be tolerated and detected by reducing the length ofpilot-1 sequence. However, a shorter pilot-1 sequence also degradessignal detection performance.

The frequency error Δf may be corrected in various manners. For example,the frequency of the RF oscillator at the terminal may be adjusted via aphase-locked loop (PLL) to correct for the frequency error. As anotherexample, the received samples may be digitally rotated as follows:r′(n)=r(n)·e ^(−j2π·Δf·T) ^(c) ^(·n),   Eq (9)where r′(n) is a frequency-corrected sample. The terminal may alsoperform resampling of the frequency-corrected samples to account forfrequency error of the clock used for sampling, which may be generatedfrom the same RF oscillator.

2. Direct Correlation for TDM Pilot1

The peak of the delayed correlation gives an approximate location of TDMPilot1. The actual location of TDM pilot1 falls within an uncertaintywindow (denoted as W_(u)) that is centered at the location n_(p) of thedelayed correlation peak. Computer simulations for an exemplary systemindicate that there is a high likelihood of TDM pilot1 falling within±35 sample periods of the peak location n_(p) when a single base stationis transmitting. When multiple base stations are transmitting in asynchronous system, the uncertainty window depends on the lag or delaybetween the arrival times of the signals transmitted by these basestations. This lag is dependent on the distance between the basestations. As an example, a distance of 5 kilo meter (km) corresponds toa lag of approximately 80 sample periods, and the uncertainty window isabout ±80 sample periods. In general, the uncertainty window isdependent on various factors such as the system bandwidth, the TDMpilot1 duration, the received SNR for TDM pilot1, the number of basestations transmitting TDM pilot1, the time delay for different basestations, and so on.

The terminal may perform direct correlation to detect for stronginstances of TDM pilot1 within the uncertainty window. For each timeoffset within the uncertainty window, the terminal may perform directcorrelation for each of the M₁ possible PN1 sequences that may be usedfor TDM pilot1. Alternatively, the terminal may perform directcorrelation for each PN1 sequence used by a base station in a candidateset for the terminal. This candidate set may contain base stations(e.g., sectors) identified by the base stations with which the terminalis in communication, base stations that the terminal has identifieditself via a low-rate search, and so on. In any case, each pilot-1hypothesis corresponds to (1) a specific time offset where TDM pilot1from a base station may be present and (2) a specific PN1 sequence thatmay have been used for the TDM pilot1.

The direct correlation for TDM pilot1 for pilot-1 hypothesis (n,m), withtime offset of n and PN1 sequence of p_(m)(i), may be expressed as:

$\begin{matrix}{{{D_{m}(n)} = {\sum\limits_{i = 0}^{N_{1d} - 1}{{r^{*}\left( {i - n} \right)} \cdot {p_{m}^{\prime}(i)}}}},} & {{Eq}\mspace{14mu}(10)}\end{matrix}$where n is the time offset for pilot-1 hypothesis (n,m), which fallswithin the uncertainty window, or nεW_(u);

p′_(m)(i) is the i-th chip in an extended PN1 sequence for pilot-1hypothesis (n,m);

D_(m)(n) is a direct correlation result for pilot-1 hypothesis (n,m);and

N_(1d) is the length of the direct correlation for TDM pilot1(e.g.,N_(1d)=S₁·L₁).

The extended PN1 sequence p′_(m)(i) is obtained by repeating the PN1sequence p_(m)(i) for pilot-1 hypothesis (n,m) as many times as neededto obtain N_(1d) PN chips. For example, if the direct correlation isperformed over two pilot-1 instances, or N_(1d)=2·L₁, then the PN1sequence p_(m)(i) of length L₁ is repeated twice to obtain the extendedPN1 sequence p′_(m)(i) of length 2L₁.

For each PN1 sequence to be evaluated, the terminal may perform directcorrelation at every half chip within the uncertainty window in order toreduce degradation due to sample timing error at the terminal. Forexample, if the uncertainty window is ±80 chips, then the terminal mayperform 320 direct correlations for each PN1 sequence, which correspondsto an uncertainty of 80 sample periods in each direction from theuncertainty window center at sample period n_(p). If all M₁ PN1sequences are evaluated, then the total number of direct correlationsfor TDM pilot1 is 320·M₁. In general, the terminal performs K₁ directcorrelations for K₁ different time offsets for each PN1 sequence to beevaluated, or K₁·M₁ direct correlations if all M₁ PN1 sequences areevaluated.

The direct correlation is used to identify strong instances of TDMpilot1 in the received signal. After performing all of the directcorrelations for TDM pilot1, the terminal selects K₂ strongest TDMpilot1 instances having the largest direct correlation results. Eachdetected TDM pilot1 instance is associated with a specific time offsetand a specific PN1 sequence, e.g., the k-th detected TDM pilot1 instanceis associated with time offset n_(k) and PN1 sequence p_(k)(i). Theterminal may also compare the direct correlation metric for eachdetected TDM pilot1 instance against a normalized threshold and discardthe instance if its metric is below the threshold. In any case, K₂ maybe a small value for initial acquisition when the terminal is attemptingto detect for the strongest base station. For handoff between basestations, K₂ may be a larger value to allow for detection of signalpaths belonging to the strongest base station as well as weaker basestations. Computer simulations indicate that K₂=4 may be sufficient forinitial acquisition and K₂=16 may be sufficient to detect for multiplebase stations for handoff.

The direction correlation may also be performed in the frequency domain.For frequency domain direct correlation, an N_(F)-point discrete Fouriertransform (DFT) is performed on N_(F) received samples for a given timeoffset n to obtain N_(F) frequency-domain values for the N_(F) totalsubbands. The frequency-domain values for subbands without pilot symbolsare set to zero. The resultant N_(F) frequency-domain values are thenmultiplied with N_(F) pilot symbols that include the PN1 sequence for apilot-1 hypothesis being evaluated. The N_(F) resultant symbols may beaccumulated to obtain a direct correlation result for the pilot-1hypothesis at time offset n. Alternatively, an N_(F)-point IDFT may beperformed on the N_(F) resultant symbols to obtain N_(F) time-domainvalues, which corresponds to different time offsets. In any case, thecorrelation results may be post-processed as described above to identifythe K₂ strongest TDM pilot1 instances.

3. Direct Correlation for TDM Pilot2

The terminal evaluates the K₂ detected TDM pilot1 instances byperforming direct correlation on the received samples for TDM pilot2with PN2 sequences. For each detected TDM pilot1 instance, the terminaldetermines the set of M₂ PN2 sequences {s_(l,k)(i)} associated with thePN1 sequence p_(k)(i) used for that detected TDM pilot1 instance. Eachdetected TDM pilot1 instance may thus be associated with M₂ pilot-2hypotheses. Each pilot-2 hypothesis corresponds to (1) a specific timeoffset where TDM pilot2 from a base station may be present and (2) aspecific PN2 sequence that may have been used for the TDM pilot2 . Foreach pilot-2 hypothesis, the terminal performs direct correlation on thereceived samples for TDM pilot2 with the PN2 sequence for thathypothesis to detect for the presence of TDM pilot2.

The direct correlation for TDM pilot2 for pilot-2 hypothesis (k,l), withtime offset of n_(k) and PN2 sequence of s_(l,k)(i), may be expressedas:

$\begin{matrix}{{{G_{l}\left( n_{k} \right)} = {\sum\limits_{i = 0}^{N_{2} - 1}{{r^{*}\left( {i - n_{k}} \right)} \cdot {s_{l,k}(i)}}}},} & {{Eq}\mspace{14mu}(11)}\end{matrix}$where s_(l,k)(i) is the i-th chip in the PN2 sequence for pilot-2hypothesis (k,l);

r(i−n_(k)) is the i-th received sample for time offset n_(k);

G_(l)(n_(k)) is a direct correlation result for pilot-2 hypothesis(k,l); and

N₂ is the length of the direct correlation for TDM pilot2.

The direct correlation length may be set to the length of the pilot-2sequence (i.e., N₂=L₂) or the length of TDM pilot2(i.e., N₂=T₂) ifT₂≠L₂.

A direct correlation metric for TDM pilot2 may be defined as the squaredmagnitude of the direct correlation result, as follows:H _(l)(n _(k))=|G _(l)(n _(k))|².   Eq (12)The terminal may declare the presence of TDM pilot2 if the followingcondition is true:H _(l)(n _(k))>μ·E _(rx),   Eq (13)where E_(rx) is the energy of the received samples and μ is a thresholdvalue for TDM Pilot2. The energy E_(rx) may be computed based on thereceived samples used for the direct correlation for TDM pilot2 and isindicative of the local energy. The threshold value μ may be selected totrade off between detection probability and false alarm probability forTDM pilot2.

If the terminal is equipped with multiple (R) antennas, then the directcorrelation G_(l,j)(n_(k)) may be computed for each antenna j for agiven hypothesis (k,l), as shown in equation (11). The directcorrelation results for all R antennas may be non-coherently combined asfollows:

$\begin{matrix}{{H_{{total},l}\left( n_{k} \right)} = {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{R}{{{G_{l,j}\left( n_{k} \right)}}^{2}.}}} & {{Eq}\mspace{14mu}(14)}\end{matrix}$Equation (14) assumes that the path delay at all R antennas is the same,but the magnitudes of the channel gains for the R antennas areindependent. The composite direct correlation metric H_(total,l)(n_(k))may be compared against a normalized threshold μ·E_(rx) _(—) _(total),where E_(rx) _(—) _(total) is the total energy for all R antennas.

The λ and μ thresholds are used for detection of TDM pilots1 and2,respectively. These thresholds determine the detection probability aswell as the false alarm probability. Low λ and μ thresholds increase thedetection probability but also increase false alarm probability, and theconverse is true for high λ and μ thresholds. For a given threshold, thedetection probability and false alarm probability generally increasewith increasing SNR. The λ and μ thresholds may be appropriatelyselected such that (1) the detection rates for the delayed correlationand direct correlation, respectively, are sufficiently high even at lowSNRs, and (2) the false alarm rates for the delayed correlation anddirect correlation, respectively, are sufficiently low even at highSNRs.

A detection probability of P_(det) corresponds to a misdetectionprobability of (1−P_(det)). A misdetection is not detecting a pilot thatis present. A misdetection of TDM pilot1 has the effect of extendingacquisition time, until the next transmission of TDM pilot1 is received.If TDM pilot1 is transmitted periodically (e.g., every 20 milliseconds),then a misdetection of TDM pilot1 is not problematic.

A false alarm for the delayed correlation for TDM pilot1 is notcatastrophic since the subsequent direct correlation for TDM pilot2 willmost likely catch this false alarm as a bad hypothesis, i.e., thishypothesis will most likely fail the normalized comparison in equation(13). An adverse effect of a delayed correlation false alarm is extracomputation for the direct correlations for both TDM pilots1 and2. Thenumber of delayed correlation false alarms should be kept small, e.g.,to a given target delayed correlation false alarm probability for anyone frame. A false alarm for the direct correlation for TDM pilot2results in an increased false alarm probability for the overall system.The false alarm rate for TDM pilot2 may be reduced by performing directcorrelation with only PN2 sequences used by the base station(s) in thecandidate set. A large frequency error that exceeds a maximum allowablerange is not corrected nor detected by the direct correlations for TDMpilots1 and pilot2, and hence has the same effect as a false alarm.

A mechanism may be used to recover from a false alarm event in thedirect correlation for TDM pilot2. If the direct correlation for TDMpilot2 declares detection, then the terminal should be able todemodulate the data and control channels sent by the base station afterthe frequency and/or time tracking loops have converged. The terminalmay check for a false alarm by attempting to decode a control channel.For example, each base station in the system may broadcast a controlchannel on the forward link to send assignment and acknowledgment toterminals within its coverage area. This control channel may be requiredto have a high (e.g., 99%) detection probability for satisfactory systemoperation and may utilize a strong error detection code, e.g., a 16 bitcyclic redundancy check (CRC), which corresponds to a false alarmprobability of 0.5¹⁶≈1.5×10⁻⁵. When the direct correlation for TDMpilot2 declares detection, the terminal may attempt to decode one ormore packets or messages sent on this control channel. If the decodingfails, then the terminal may declare a false alarm and restart theacquisition process.

FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram of an acquisition process 400 performed bythe terminal. The terminal performs delayed correlation on the receivedsamples to detect for the presence of TDM pilot1 (block 410). This maybe achieved by performing delayed correlation for each sample period andcomparing the delayed correlation metric S(n) against the normalizedthreshold. If TDM pilot1 is not detected, as determined in block 412,then the terminal returns to block 410 to perform delayed correlation inthe next sample period. However, if TDM pilot1 is detected, then theterminal estimates the frequency error in the received sample andcorrects for the frequency error (block 414).

The terminal then performs direct correlation on either the receivedsamples or the frequency-corrected samples with PN1 sequences for K₁different time offsets and identifies K₂ best detected TDM pilot1instances having K₂ largest direct correlation results for TDMpilot1(block 416). Each detected TDM pilot1 instance is associated witha specific time offset and a specific PN1 sequence. The terminal mayevaluate M₂ pilot-2 hypotheses for each detected TDM pilot1 instance,with each pilot-2 hypothesis being associated with a specific timeoffset and a specific PN2 sequence. For each pilot-2 hypothesis, theterminal performs direct correlation on the received orfrequency-corrected samples with the PN2 sequence for the hypothesis andcompares the direct correlation metric H_(l)(n_(k)) against thenormalized threshold to detect for the presence of TDM pilot2 (block418).

If TDM pilot2 is not detected, as determined in block 420, then theterminal returns to block 410. Otherwise, the terminal may attempt todecode a control channel to check for false alarm (block 422). If thecontrol channel is successfully decoded, as determined in block 424,then the terminal declares successful acquisition (block 426).Otherwise, the terminal returns to block 410.

The acquisition process may be performed in stages, as shown in FIG. 4.Stage 1 covers the delayed and direct correlations for TDM pilot1 and isgenerally used for signal detection. Stage 1 includes substage 1 for thedelayed correlation for TDM pilot1 and substage 2 for the directcorrelation for TDM pilot1. Stage 2 covers the direct correlation forTDM pilot2 and is used for time synchronization and base stationidentification. Stage 3 covers the decoding of a control channel and isused to check for false alarm. Signal acquisition may also be performedwith fewer than all of the stages and substages shown in FIG. 4. Forexample, stage 3 may be omitted, substage 2 may be omitted, and so on.

The terminal performs initial acquisition (e.g., upon power up) if it isnot already receiving a signal from a base station. The terminaltypically does not have accurate system timing for initial acquisitionand may thus perform direct correlation for TDM pilot1 over a largeruncertainty window in order to ensure detection of TDM pilot1. Forinitial acquisition, the terminal may only need to search for thestrongest base station, and may thus select a smaller number of detectedTDM pilot1 instances for subsequent evaluation.

The terminal may perform handoff acquisition to search for better (e.g.,stronger) base stations to receive service from. For the staggered pilottransmission scheme shown in FIG. 3B or the asynchronous pilottransmission scheme shown in FIG. 3C, the terminal may continuallysearch for strong base stations by performing delayed correlation as abackground task while the terminal is communicating with one or morebase stations in an active set. The delayed correlation provides coarsetiming for the strong base stations found by the search. For thesynchronous pilot transmission scheme shown in FIG. 3A, the timing ofthe base stations in the active set may be used as the coarse timing ofother strong base stations. In any case, the terminal may perform directcorrelation for TDM pilot2 for all new base stations with sufficientlyhigh received signal strength. Since the terminal already has accuratesystem timing from the base station(s) in the active set, the terminaldoes not need to use the coarse time estimate from the delayedcorrelation and may perform direct correlation over an uncertaintywindow centered at the timing of the base station(s) in the active set.The terminal may initiate a handoff to another base station havingstronger received signal strength than that of the base station(s) inthe active set.

For clarity, a specific pilot transmission scheme with two TDM pilotshas been described above. The use of two TDM pilots may reducecomputation at the terminal since signal acquisition may be performed intwo parts—the signal detection and time synchronization. The delayedcorrelation for signal detection may be efficiently performed with justone multiply for each sample period, as described below. Each directcorrelation requires multiple (N_(1d) or N₂) multiplies. The number ofdirect correlations to compute is dependent on the number of PNsequences to be evaluated and may be large (e.g., K₁·M₁, directcorrelations for TDM pilot1, and K₂·M₂ direct correlations for TDMpilot2). The pre-processing with TDM pilot1 can greatly reduce theamount of processing required for TDM pilot2.

M₁ PN1 sequences may be used for TDM pilot1, and M₂ PN2 sequences may beused for TDM pilot2 for each PN1 sequence, which gives a total of M₁·M₂PN2 sequences. The choice of M₁ and M₂ affects the complexity ofacquisition and the false alarm probability, but has little or no effecton the detection probabilities for the delayed correlation and directcorrelation (for the same threshold values). As an example, if K₁=320direct correlations are performed for each PN1 sequence (e.g., for a lagof 80 chips) and K₂=16 direct correlations are performed for each PN2sequence (e.g., for handoff acquisition), then the total number ofdirect correlations is K₁·M₁+K₂·M₂=320·M₁+16·M₂. If M₁·M₂=256 PN2sequences are needed for the system, then computation is minimized ifM₁=4 and M₂=64, and the number of direct correlations is 2304. Ingeneral, any values may be chosen for M₁ and M₂ depending on variousfactors such as, e.g., the total number of PN2 sequences required by thesystem, the uncertainty window size (or K₁), the number of detected TDMpilot 1 instances to evaluate (K₂), and so on. Complexity may also bereduced by searching for pilots with PN sequences used by basestation(s) in the candidate set.

The TDM pilots may also carry data. For example, TDM pilot2 may be usedto send one or more bits of information, which may be embedded in thePN2 sequence used by each base station. Instead of having M₁·M₂ PN2sequences for TDM pilot2, one bit of information may be conveyed byusing 2·M₁·M₂ PN2 sequences for TDM pilot2. Each base station may thenbe assigned a pair of PN2 sequences and may use one PN2 sequence in thepair to convey an information bit value of ‘0’ and use the other PN2sequence in the pair to convey an information bit value of ‘1’. Thenumber of hypothesis to evaluate for acquisition doubles because thereis twice the number of possible PN2 sequences. After acquisition, thePN2 sequence is known and the associated information bit value can beascertained. More information bits may be conveyed by using a larger setof PN2 sequences for each base station. If the data modulation consistsof multiplying the PN2 sequence by a phase factor, then no additionalcorrelations are required. This is because only at the magnitude of thecorrelation is examined and the phase is ignored.

Signal acquisition may also be performed with a single TDM pilot. Forexample, each base station may transmit a TDM pilot using a PN sequencethat uniquely identifies that base station. The terminal receives theTDM pilots from all base stations and performs delayed correlation onthe received samples for signal detection. If a signal is detected, thenthe terminal may perform direct correlation on the received samples forthe TDM pilot with all of the PN sequences and at different time offsets(or K₁·M₁·M₂ direct correlations, which may be much larger thanK₁·M₁+K₂·M₂). From the direct correlation results, the terminal canidentify each base station transmitting the TDM pilot and determine itstiming. Alternatively, the terminal may perform direct correlation onthe received samples for the TDM pilot with a limited set of PNsequences (e.g., for base stations in the candidate set) to reducecomplexity.

In addition to the TDM pilot(s), each base station in an OFDM-basedsystem may transmit a frequency division multiplexed (FDM) pilot on oneor more pilot subbands, which are subbands designated for the FDM pilot.Each base station may transmit the FDM pilot in data field 230 in FIG.2A and may apply a unique PN sequence on the pilot symbols sent on thepilot subband(s). The first PN chip in this PN sequence may be used forthe FDM pilot in symbol period 1, the second PN chip may be used for theFDM pilot in symbol period 2, and so on. The PN sequence used for theFDM pilot may be the same as, or different from, the PN2 sequence usedfor TDM pilot 2. The FDM pilot may be used to improve acquisitionperformance, e.g., to reduce false alarm rate. The FDM pilot may also beused to uniquely identify the base stations in the system. For example,a smaller number of PN2 sequences may be used for TDM pilot 2, and theFDM pilot may be used to resolve any ambiguity among base stations.

The direct correlations for TDM pilots1 and2 compute the received signalstrength at specific time offsets. The base stations are thus identifiedbased on their strongest signal paths, where each signal path isassociated with a particular time offset. A receiver in an OFDM-basedsystem can capture the energy for all signal paths within the cyclicprefix. Thus, base stations may be selected based on a total energymetric instead of a strongest path metric.

For a synchronous system, the base stations may transmit their TDMpilots1 And2 at the same time, as shown in FIG. 3A. Alternatively, thebase stations may transmit their TDM pilots staggered in time, as shownin FIG. 3B. For staggered TDM pilots, the terminal may obtain delayedcorrelation peaks at different time offsets and may compare these peaksin order to select the strongest base station.

Some or all of the base stations in the system may be asynchronous. Inthis case, the TDM pilots from different base stations may not arrivecoincidentally with each other. The terminal may still be able toperform the signal acquisition described above to search for and acquirepilots from the base station. However, if the base stations areasynchronous, then the TDM pilot1 from each base station may observeinterference from other base stations, and detection performance for thedelayed correlation degrades because of the interference. The durationof the TDM pilot1 may be extended to account for the interference andachieve the desired detection performance (e.g., the desired detectionprobability for TDM pilot1).

4. System

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of a base station 110 x and a terminal 120x, which are one base station and one terminal in system 100. At basestation 110 x, a TX data processor 510 receives different types of data(e.g., traffic/packet data and overhead/control data) and processes(e.g., encodes, interleaves, and symbol maps) the received data togenerate data symbols. As used herein, a “data symbol” is a modulationsymbol for data, a “pilot symbol” is a modulation symbol for pilot(which is data that is known a priori by both the base station andterminals), and a modulation symbol is a complex value for a point in asignal constellation for a modulation scheme (e.g., M-PSK, M-QAM, and soon).

An OFDM modulator 520 multiplexes the data symbols onto the propersubbands and performs OFDM modulation on the multiplexed symbols togenerate OFDM symbols. A TX pilot processor 530 generates TDM pilots1and2 in the time domain (as shown in FIG. 5) or the frequency domain. Amultiplexer (Mux) 532 receives and multiplexes TDM pilots1 and2 from TXpilot processor 530 with the OFDM symbols from OFDM modulator 520 andprovides a stream of samples to a transmitter unit (TMTR) 534.Transmitter unit 534 converts the sample stream into analog signals andfurther conditions (e.g., amplifies, filters, and frequency upconverts)the analog signals to generate a modulated signal. Base station 110 xthen transmits the modulated signal from an antenna 536 to terminals inthe system.

At terminal 120 x, the transmitted signals from base station 110 x aswell as other base stations are received by an antenna 552 and providedto a receiver unit (RCVR) 554. Receiver unit 554 conditions (e.g.,filters, amplifies, frequency downconverts, and digitizes) the receivedsignal to generate a stream of received samples. A synchronization(sync) unit 580 obtains the received samples from receiver unit 554 andperforms acquisition to detect for signals from the base stations anddetermine the timing of each detected base station. Unit 580 providestiming information to an OFDM demodulator 560 and/or a controller 590.

OFDM demodulator 560 performs OFDM demodulation on the received samplesbased on the timing information from unit 580 and obtains received dataand pilot symbols. OFDM demodulator 560 also performs detection (ormatched filtering) on the received data symbols with a channel estimate(e.g., a frequency response estimate) and obtains detected data symbols,which are estimates of the data symbols sent by base station 110 x. OFDMdemodulator 560 provides the detected data symbols to a receive (RX)data processor 570. RX data processor 570 processes (e.g., symboldemaps, deinterleaves, and decodes) the detected data symbols andprovides decoded data. RX data processor 570 and/or controller 590 mayuse the timing information to recover different types of data sent bybase station 110 x. In general, the processing by OFDM demodulator 560and RX data processor 570 is complementary to the processing by OFDMmodulator 520 and TX data processor 510, respectively, at base station110 x.

Controllers 540 and 590 direct operation at base station 110 x andterminal 120 x, respectively. Memory units 542 and 592 provide storagefor program codes and data used by controllers 540 and 590,respectively.

FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of TX pilot processor 530at base station 110 x. For this embodiment, TX pilot processor 530generates TDM pilots1 and2 in the time domain. Within TX pilot processor530, a PN1 generator 612 generates the PN1 sequence assigned to basestation 110 x, and a PN2 generator 614 generates the PN2 sequenceassigned to base station 110 x. Each PN generator may be implementedwith, for example, a linear feedback shift register (LFSR) thatimplements a generator polynomial for the PN sequence. PN generators 612and 614 may be initialized with the proper values corresponding to thePN1 and PN 2 sequences assigned to base station 110 x. A multiplexer 616receives the outputs from PN generators 612 and 614 and provides theoutput from each PN generator at the appropriate time, as determined bya TDM_Ctrl signal.

The TDM pilots may also be generated in the frequency domain, asdescribed above. In this case, the PN1 and PN2 sequences from PNgenerators 612 and 614, respectively, may be provided to OFDM modulator520 and used to multiply the frequency-domain pilot symbols or thetime-domain samples for the TDM pilots.

FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of sync unit 580 atterminal 120 x. Sync unit 580 includes a TDM pilot1 processor 710 and aTDM pilot2 processor 740. Within TDM pilot1 processor 710, a delayedcorrelator 720 performs delayed correlation on the received samples andprovides a delayed correlation result C(n) for each sample period. Apilot/peak detector 722 detects for the presence of TDM pilot1 in thereceived signal based on the delayed correlation results and, if asignal is detected, determines the peak of the delayed correlation. Afrequency error detector 724 estimates the frequency error in thereceived samples based on the phase of the delayed correlation result atthe detected peak, as shown in equation (8), and provides the frequencyerror estimate. A frequency error correction unit 726 performs frequencyerror correction on the received samples and providesfrequency-corrected samples. A direct correlator 730 performs directcorrelation on the frequency-corrected samples (as shown in FIG. 7) orthe received samples (not shown) for different time offsets in theuncertainty window, which is centered at the detected peak location, andprovides direct correlation results for TDM pilot1. A peak detector 732detects for the K₂ strongest instances of TDM pilot1 within theuncertainty window.

Within TDM pilot2 processor 740, a direct correlator 750 performs directcorrelation on the received or frequency corrected samples for differentpilot-2 hypotheses determined by the K₂ strongest detected TDM pilot1instances from peak detector 732 and provides direct correlation resultsfor these pilot-2 hypotheses. A pilot detector 752 detects for presenceof TDM pilot2 by performing the normalized comparison shown in equation(13). Pilot detector 752 provides the identity as well as the timing ofeach detected base station as the detector output.

FIG. 8A shows a block diagram of an embodiment of delayed correlator 720for TDM pilot1. Within delayed correlator 720, a shift register 812 (oflength L₁) receives and stores the received sample r(n) for each sampleperiod n and provides a delayed received sample r(n−L₁), which has beendelayed by L₁ sample periods. A sample buffer may also be used in placeof shift register 812. A unit 816 also obtains the received sample r(n)and provides a complex-conjugated received sample r* (n). For eachsample period n, a multiplier 814 multiplies the delayed received sampler(n−L₁) from shift register 812 with the complex-conjugated receivedsample r*(n) from unit 816 and provides a correlation resultc(n)=r*(n)·r(n−L₁) to a shift register 822 (of length N₁) and a summer824. For each sample period n, shift register 822 receives and storesthe correlation result c(n) from multiplier 814 and provides acorrelation result c(n−N₁) that has been delayed by N₁ sample periods.For each sample period n, summer 824 receives and sums the output C(n−1)of a register 826 with the result c(n) from multiplier 814, furthersubtracts the delayed result c(n−N₁) from shift register 822, andprovides its output C(n) to register 826. Summer 824 and register 826form an accumulator that performs the summation operation in equation(2). Shift register 822 and summer 824 are also configured to perform arunning or sliding summation of the N₁ most recent correlation resultsc(n) through c(n−N₁+1). This is achieved by summing the most recentcorrelation result c(n) from multiplier 814 and subtracting out thecorrelation result c(n−N₁) from N₁ sample periods earlier, which isprovided by shift register 822.

FIG. 8B shows a block diagram of an embodiment of direct correlator 730for TDM pilot1. Within direct correlator 730, a buffer 842 stores thereceived samples. When the peak of the delayed correlation for TDMpilot1 has been detected, a window generator 832 determines theuncertainty window and provides controls to evaluate each of the pilot-1hypotheses. Generator 832 provides a time offset and a PN1 sequence foreach pilot-1 hypothesis. Buffer 842 provides the proper sequence of(conjugated) samples for each pilot-1 hypothesis based on the indicatedtime offset. A PN generator 834 generates the proper PN1 sequence at theindicated time offset. A multiplier 844 multiplies the samples frombuffer 842 with the PN 1 sequence from PN generator 834. For eachpilot-1 hypothesis, an accumulator 846 accumulates the N_(1d) resultsfrom multiplier 844 and provides the direct correlation result for thathypothesis.

Direct correlator 750 for TDM pilot2 may be implemented in similarmanner as direct correlator 730 for TDM pilot1, albeit with thefollowing differences. Generator 832 generates the controls to evaluatethe K₂ detected TDM pilot1 instances from peak detector 732 instead ofthe K₁ time offsets within the uncertainty window. PN generator 834generates the proper PN2 sequence instead of the PN1 sequence.Accumulator 846 performs accumulation over N₂ samples instead of N_(1d)samples.

The signal acquisition techniques described herein may be implemented byvarious means. For example, these techniques may be implemented inhardware, software, or a combination thereof. For a hardwareimplementation, the processing units used to generate and transmit theTDM pilot(s) may be implemented within one or more application specificintegrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digitalsignal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs),field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers,micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed toperform the functions described herein, or a combination thereof. Theprocessing units used to perform acquisition may also be implementedwithin one or more ASICs, DSPs, and so on.

For a software implementation, the signal acquisition techniques may beimplemented with modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) thatperform the functions described herein. The software codes may be storedin a memory unit (e.g., memory unit 542 or 592 in FIG. 5) and executedby a processor (e.g., controller 540 or 590). The memory unit may beimplemented within the processor or external to the processor, in whichcase it can be communicatively coupled to the processor via variousmeans as is known in the art.

As used herein, OFDM may also include an orthogonal frequency divisionmultiple access (OFDMA) architecture where multiple users share the OFDMchannels.

Headings are included herein for reference and to aid in locatingcertain sections. These headings are not intended to limit the scope ofthe concepts described therein under, and these concepts may haveapplicability in other sections throughout the entire specification.

The previous description of the disclosed embodiments is provided toenable any person skilled in the art to make or use the presentinvention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readilyapparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles definedherein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from thespirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is notintended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to beaccorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novelfeatures disclosed herein.

1. A method of transmitting pilots in a communication system,comprising: generating a first time division multiplexed (TDM) pilot;identifying a pseudo-random number (PN) sequence from a set of possiblePN sequences for a second TDM pilot: generating the second TDM pilotbased at least in part on the PN sequence, wherein an identity of atransmitting entity of the first and second TDM pilots is associatedwith the PN sequence; transmitting the first TDM pilot in a firstportion of each transmission interval for the first and second TDMpilots; and transmitting the second TDM pilot in a second portion ofsaid each transmission interval.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thegenerating the first TDM pilot comprises generating a pilot sequence,and generating the first TDM pilot based on at least one instance of thepilot sequence.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating thesecond TDM pilot comprises generating a pilot sequence based on the PNsequence, and generating the second TDM pilot based on at least oneinstance of the pilot sequence.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein thegenerating the first TDM pilot comprises generating the first TDM pilotin frequency domain based on a first set of pilot symbols for a firstset of subcarriers, and wherein the generating the second TDM pilotcomprises generating the second TDM pilot in the frequency domain basedon a second set of pilot symbols for a second set of subcarriers.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the transmitting the second TDM pilotcomprises transmitting the second TDM pilot in the second portion, nextto the first portion, of said each transmission interval.
 6. The methodof claim 1, wherein the generating the first TDM pilot comprisesapplying a pilot sequence to multiple subcarriers, and generating thefirst TDM pilot based on the pilot sequence applied to the multiplesubcarriers.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprising: identifyingthe pilot sequence, from a set of pilot sequences available for thefirst TDM pilot, based on the identity of the transmitting entity. 8.The method of claim 6, further comprising: identifying the pilotsequence and the PN sequence based on the identity of the transmittingentity, the pilot sequence being from a set of pilot sequences availablefor the first TDM pilot.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein thegenerating the second TDM pilot comprises applying the PN sequence tomultiple subcarriers, and generating the second TDM pilot based on thePN sequence applied to the multiple subcarriers.
 10. The method of claim1, wherein the identifying the PN sequence comprises identifying the PNsequence, from the set of possible PN sequences for the second TDMpilot, based on the identity of the transmitting entity.
 11. The methodof claim 1, wherein the generating the first TDM pilot comprisesgenerating a first orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)symbol comprising the first TDM pilot, and wherein the generating thesecond TDM pilot comprises generating a second OFDM symbol comprisingthe second TDM pilot.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the generatingthe first OFDM symbol comprises applying a pilot sequence to multiplesubcarriers, and generating the first OFDM symbol comprising the pilotsequence applied to the multiple subcarriers.
 13. The method of claim11, wherein the generating the second OFDM symbol comprises applying thePN sequence to multiple subcarriers, and generating the second OFDMsymbol comprising the PN sequence applied to the multiple subcarriers.14. The method of claim 11, wherein the transmitting the first TDM pilotcomprises transmitting the first OFDM symbol in a first symbol period ofsaid each transmission interval, and wherein the transmitting the secondTDM pilot comprises transmitting the second OFDM symbol in a secondsymbol period of said each transmission interval.
 15. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: generating a frequency division multiplexed(FDM) pilot; and transmitting the FDM pilot in a third portion of saideach transmission interval.
 16. The method of claim 1, wherein thetransmitting entity is a base station for a cell.
 17. A method oftransmitting pilots in a communication system, comprising: generating afirst time division multiplexed (TDM) pilot based at least in part on afirst pseudo-random number (PN) sequence in a set of possible first PNsequences for the first TDM pilot; generating a second TDM pilot basedat least in part on a second PN sequence in a set of second PN sequencesassociated with the first PN sequence; transmitting the first TDM pilotin a first portion of each transmission interval for the first andsecond TDM pilots; and transmitting the second TDM pilot in a secondportion of said each transmission interval.
 18. The method of claim 17,wherein the generating the first TDM pilot comprises generating thefirst TDM pilot based on the first PN sequence in time domain, andwherein the generating the second TDM pilot comprises generating thesecond TDM pilot based on the second PN sequence in time domain.
 19. Themethod of claim 17, wherein the generating the first TDM pilot comprisesgenerating the first TDM pilot in frequency domain based on a first setof pilot symbols for a first set of subcarriers, and wherein thegenerating the second TDM pilot comprises generating the second TDMpilot in the frequency domain based on a second set of pilot symbols fora second set of subcarriers.
 20. The method of claim 17, wherein thegenerating the first TDM pilot comprises generating a pilot sequencebased on the first PN sequence, and generating the first TDM pilot basedon at least one instance of the pilot sequence.
 21. The method of claim20, wherein the generating the pilot sequence comprises generating thepilot sequence based on the first PN sequence and having a length equalto the length of the first PN sequence.
 22. The method of claim 17,wherein the generating the first TDM pilot comprises generating thefirst TDM pilot based on a different first PN sequence for each of aplurality of transmission intervals.
 23. The method of claim 17, furthercomprising: identifying the first PN sequence from among the set ofpossible first PN sequences, the first PN sequence corresponding to acode offset selected from among a plurality of possible code offsets.24. The method of claim 17, wherein the generating the second TDM pilotcomprises generating a pilot sequence based on the second PN sequence,and generating the second TDM pilot based on at least one instance ofthe pilot sequence.
 25. The method of claim 24, wherein the generatingthe pilot sequence comprises generating the pilot sequence based on thesecond PN sequence and having a length equal to the length of the secondPN sequence.
 26. The method of claim 24, wherein the generating thepilot sequence comprises generating the pilot sequence based on thesecond PN sequence and having a longer length than a pilot sequence forthe first TDM pilot.
 27. The method of claim 17, further comprising:generating a third TDM pilot based on a third PN sequence; andtransmitting the third TDM pilot in a third portion of said eachtransmission interval.
 28. The method of claim 17, further comprising:generating a frequency division multiplexed (FDM) pilot; andtransmitting the FDM pilot in a third portion of said each transmissioninterval.
 29. The method of claim 17, further comprising: generating afrequency division multiplexed (FDM) pilot based on the second PNsequence; and transmitting the FDM pilot in a third portion of said eachtransmission interval.
 30. The method of claim 17, further comprising:generating a frequency division multiplexed (FDM) pilot based on a thirdPN sequence; and transmitting the FDM pilot in a third portion of saideach transmission interval.
 31. The method of claim 17, furthercomprising: identifying the first PN sequence from among the set ofpossible first PN sequences; and identifying the second PN sequence fromamong the set of second PN sequences associated with the first PNsequence.
 32. The method of claim 17, further comprising: identifyingthe second PN sequence assigned to a base station transmitting the firstand second TDM pilots, wherein neighboring base stations in the systemare assigned different second PN sequences.
 33. The method of claim 17,wherein the generating the second TDM pilot comprises selecting thesecond PN sequence from among a plurality of second PN sequencesassigned to a base station, wherein each of the plurality of second PNsequences corresponds to a different data value.
 34. The method of claim17, further comprising: identifying the first and second PN sequencesbased on an identity of a transmitting entity of the first and secondTDM pilots.
 35. A method of transmitting pilots in a communicationsystem, comprising: identifying a pseudo-random number (PN) sequence foreach of a plurality of time division multiplexed (TDM) pilots from a setof PN sequences available for each TDM pilot; generating the pluralityof TDM pilots based on a plurality of PN sequences identified for theplurality of TDM pilots wherein an identity of a transmitting entity ofthe plurality of TDM pilots is associated with the plurality of PNsequences; and transmitting the plurality of TDM pilots in a pluralityof time intervals of each transmission interval with TDM pilottransmission.
 36. The method of claim 35, wherein the identifyingcomprises identifying a first PN sequence for a first TDM pilot fromamong a set of PN sequences available for the first TDM pilot; and foreach remaining TDM pilot among the plurality of TDM pilots, determininga subset of PN sequences associated with at least one PN sequence usedfor at least one other TDM pilot, and identifying a PN sequence for theremaining TDM pilot from among the subset of PN sequences.
 37. Anapparatus in a communication system, comprising: at least one processoroperative to generate a first time division multiplexed (TDM) pilotbased at least in part on a first pseudo-random number (PN) sequence ina set of possible first PN sequences for the first TDM pilot, togenerate a second TDM pilot based at least in part on a second PNsequence in a set of second PN sequences associated with the first PNsequence, to multiplex the first TDM pilot in a first portion of eachtransmission interval for the first and second TDM pilots, and tomultiplex the second TDM pilot in a second portion of said eachtransmission interval.
 38. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the atleast one processor is operative to generate a pilot sequence based onthe second PN sequence, and to generate the second TDM pilot based on atleast one instance of the pilot sequence.
 39. The apparatus of claim 37,wherein the at least one processor is operative to identify the first PNsequence from among the set of possible first PN sequences and toidentify the second PN sequence from among the set of second PNsequences associated with the first PN sequence.
 40. The apparatus ofclaim 37, further comprising: a transmitter unit operative to transmitthe first and second TDM pilots aligned in time with first and secondTDM pilots from at least one other base station.
 41. The apparatus ofclaim 37, further comprising: a transmitter unit operative to transmitthe first and second TDM pilots asynchronously with respect to first andsecond TDM pilots from at least one other base station.
 42. Theapparatus of claim 37, further comprising: a transmitter unit operativeto transmit the first and second TDM pilots staggered in time withrespect to first and second TDM pilots from at least one other basestation.
 43. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein the first and second TDMpilots for each base station are transmitted in a time interval assignedto the base station.
 44. The apparatus of claim 42, wherein neighboringbase stations in the system use the same first PN sequence and the samesecond PN sequence.
 45. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein neighboringbase stations in the system are assigned different second PN sequences.46. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the communication system utilizesorthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM).
 47. The apparatus ofclaim 37, wherein the at least one processor is operative to identifythe first and second PN sequences based on an identity of a transmittingentity of the first and second TDM pilots.
 48. An apparatus in acommunication system, comprising: means for generating a first timedivision multiplexed (TDM) pilot based at least in part on a firstpseudo-random number (PN) sequence in a set of possible first PNsequences for the first TDM pilot; means for generating a second TDMpilot based at least in part on a second PN sequence in a set of secondPN sequences associated with the first PN sequence; means fortransmitting the first TDM pilot in a first portion of each transmissioninterval for the first and second TDM pilots; and means for transmittingthe second TDM pilot in a second portion of said each transmissioninterval.
 49. The apparatus of claim 48, wherein the means forgenerating the second TDM pilot comprises means for generating a pilotsequence based on the second PN sequence and means for generating thesecond TDM pilot based on at least one instance of the pilot sequence.50. The apparatus of claim 48, wherein neighboring base stations in thesystem are assigned different second PN sequences.
 51. The apparatus ofclaim 48, further comprising: means for identifying the first and secondPN sequences based on an identity of a transmitting entity of the firstand second TDM pilots.
 52. An apparatus in a communication system,comprising: means for generating a first time division multiplexed (TDM)pilot; means for identifying a pseudo-random number (PN) sequence from aset of possible PN sequences for a second TDM pilot: means forgenerating the second TDM pilot based at least in part on the PNsequence, wherein an identity of a transmitting entity of the first andsecond TDM pilots is associated with the PN sequence; means fortransmitting the first TDM pilot in a first portion of each transmissioninterval for the first and second TDM pilots; and means for transmittingthe second TDM pilot in a second portion of said each transmissioninterval.
 53. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein the means forgenerating the first TDM pilot comprises means for generating a pilotsequence, and means for generating the first TDM pilot based on at leastone instance of the pilot sequence.
 54. The apparatus of claim 52,wherein the means for generating the second TDM pilot comprises meansfor generating a pilot sequence based on the PN sequence, and means forgenerating the second TDM pilot based on at least one instance of thepilot sequence.
 55. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein the means forgenerating the first TDM pilot comprises means for applying a pilotsequence to multiple subcarriers, and means for generating the first TDMpilot based on the pilot sequence applied to the multiple subcarriers.56. The apparatus of claim 55, further comprising: means for identifyingthe pilot sequence, from a set of pilot sequences available for thefirst TDM pilot, based on the identity of the transmitting entity. 57.The apparatus of claim 55, further comprising: means for identifying thepilot sequence and the PN sequence based on the identity of thetransmitting entity, the pilot sequence being from a set of pilotsequences available for the first TDM pilot.
 58. The apparatus of claim52, wherein the means for generating the second TDM pilot comprisesmeans for applying the PN sequence to multiple subcarriers, and meansfor generating the second TDM pilot based on the PN sequence applied tothe multiple subcarriers.
 59. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein themeans for identifying the PN sequence comprises means for identifyingthe PN sequence, from the set of possible PN sequences for the secondTDM pilot, based on the identity of the transmitting entity.
 60. Theapparatus of claim 52, wherein the means for generating the first TDMpilot comprises means for generating a first orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) symbol comprising the first TDM pilot, andwherein the means for generating the second TDM pilot comprises meansfor generating a second OFDM symbol comprising the second TDM pilot. 61.The apparatus of claim 60, wherein the means for generating the firstOFDM symbol comprises means for applying a pilot sequence to multiplesubcarriers, and means for generating the first OFDM symbol comprisingthe pilot sequence applied to the multiple subcarriers.
 62. Theapparatus of claim 60, wherein the means for generating the second OFDMsymbol comprises means for applying the PN sequence to multiplesubcarriers, and means for generating the second OFDM symbol comprisingthe PN sequence applied to the multiple subcarriers.
 63. The apparatusof claim 60, wherein the means for transmitting the first TDM pilotcomprises means for transmitting the first OFDM symbol in a first symbolperiod of said each transmission interval, and wherein the means fortransmitting the second TDM pilot comprises means for transmitting thesecond OFDM symbol in a second symbol period of said each transmissioninterval.
 64. The apparatus of claim 52, further comprising: means forgenerating a frequency division multiplexed (FDM) pilot; and means fortransmitting the FDM pilot in a third portion of said each transmissioninterval.
 65. The apparatus of claim 52, wherein the transmitting entityis a base station for a cell.
 66. An apparatus in a communicationsystem, comprising: at least one processor configured to generate afirst time division multiplexed (TDM) pilot, to identify a pseudo-randomnumber (PN) sequence from a set of possible PN sequences for a secondTDM pilot, to generate the second TDM pilot based at least in part onthe PN sequence, wherein an identity of a transmitting entity of thefirst and second TDM pilots is associated with the PN sequence, to sendthe first TDM pilot in a first portion of each transmission interval forthe first and second TDM pilots and to send the second TDM pilot in asecond portion of said each transmission interval.
 67. The apparatus ofclaim 66, wherein the at least one processor is configured to generate apilot sequence and to generate the first TDM pilot based on at least oneinstance of the pilot sequence.
 68. The apparatus of claim 66, whereinthe at least one processor is configured to generate a pilot sequencebased on the PN sequence and to generate the second TDM pilot based onat least one instance of the pilot sequence.
 69. The apparatus of claim66, wherein the at least one processor is configured to apply a pilotsequence to multiple subcarriers and to generate the first TDM pilotwith the pilot sequence applied to the multiple subcarriers.
 70. Theapparatus of claim 69, wherein the at least one processor is configuredto identify the pilot sequence, from a set of pilot sequences availablefor the first TDM pilot, based on the identity of the transmittingentity.
 71. The apparatus of claim 69, wherein the at least oneprocessor is configured to identify the pilot sequence and the PNsequence based on the identity of the transmitting entity, the pilotsequence being from a set of pilot sequences available for the first TDMpilot.
 72. The apparatus of claim 66, wherein the at least one processoris configured to apply the PN sequence to multiple subcarriers and togenerate the second TDM pilot with the PN sequence applied to themultiple subcarriers.
 73. The apparatus of claim 66, wherein the atleast one processor is configured to identify the PN sequence, from theset of possible PN sequences for the second TDM pilot, based on theidentity of the transmitting entity.
 74. The apparatus of claim 66,wherein the at least one processor is configured to generate a firstorthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol comprising thefirst TDM pilot and to generate a second OFDM symbol comprising thesecond TDM pilot.
 75. The apparatus of claim 74, wherein the at leastone processor is configured to apply a pilot sequence to multiplesubcarriers and to generate the first OFDM symbol comprising the pilotsequence applied to the multiple subcarriers.
 76. The apparatus of claim74, wherein the at least one processor is configured to apply the PNsequence to multiple subcarriers and to generate the second OFDM symbolcomprising the PN sequence applied to the multiple subcarriers.
 77. Theapparatus of claim 74, wherein the at least one processor is configuredto transmit the first OFDM symbol in a first symbol period of said eachtransmission interval and to transmit the second OFDM symbol in a secondsymbol period of said each transmission interval.
 78. The apparatus ofclaim 66, wherein the at least one processor is configured to generate afrequency division multiplexed (FDM) pilot and to transmit the FDM pilotin a third portion of said each transmission interval.
 79. The apparatusof claim 66, wherein the transmitting entity is a base station for acell.
 80. A computer program product, comprising: a non-transitoryprocessor-readable medium comprising: code for causing at least oneprocessor to generate a first time division multiplexed (TDM) pilot,code for causing the at least one processor to identify a pseudo-randomnumber (PN) sequence from a set of possible PN sequences for a secondTDM pilot, code for causing the at least one processor to generate thesecond TDM pilot based at least in part on the PN sequence, wherein anidentity of a transmitting entity of the first and second TDM pilots isassociated with the PN sequence, code for causing the at least oneprocessor to send the first TDM pilot in a first portion of eachtransmission interval for the first and second TDM pilots, and code forcausing the at least one processor to send the second TDM pilot in asecond portion of said each transmission interval.
 81. A computerprogram product, comprising: a non-transitory processor-readable mediumcomprising: code for causing at least one processor to generate a firsttime division multiplexed (TDM) pilot based on a first pseudo-randomnumber (PN) sequence in a set of possible first PN sequences for thefirst TDM pilot, code for causing the at least one processor to generatea second TDM pilot based on a second PN sequence in a set of second PNsequences associated with the first PN sequence, code for causing the atleast one processor to transmit the first TDM pilot in a first portionof each transmission interval for the first and second TDM pilots, andcode for causing the at least one processor to transmit the second TDMpilot in a second portion of said each transmission interval.